Skip to main content

10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation

When having conversation with your peers, do you ever think about exactly how you're having the conversation? Not just what you're saying, but how you're saying it? What you're doing while you are having this conversation, or even what you're thinking about while you are conversing. No? Neither do I, but we should. Talking to someone and truly being invested in the conversation is a skill. One that everyone should master, or at least attempt to. 

Most of us know how to talk, we do it every day to anyone around. But then again, most of us struggle with listening. More often than it should be, it is believed that hearing someone talk is the same as listening, and that's just not the case. Understanding someone when they speak, and processing what they say is listening. Hearing is not listening, and listening is just as, if not more important then talking is. So after listening to Celeste Headlee's "10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation" I am left with this:

Because of the recent advances in technology, people have a much more difficult time speaking face to face with someone. At least, doing it correctly. It is so easy to talk to someone over the phone or over email or over text and simply not be invested into the conversation. You don't have to be fully engaged into the conversation at all time, and at any point in the conversation you can just stop replying. So when someone has to have a conversation with someone they're not familiar with face to face, they often do it wrong. Checking their phone, fiddling with their keys, or thinking about how the person's hair just doesn't sit right on their head. All of which prevent this person from truly listening to what the speaker has to say. This is not only extremely rude to the person speaking, but it also limits the potential experience you as a listener can have while in the conversation. Celeste mentions a quote from Bill Nye which goes "Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don't". That in and of itself should be enough to get people to want to learn how to listen. So the next time you meet someone new, and you have the time, stop and listen to someone. Because chances are, what they have to say might actually help you in some way shape or form. But, if it doesn't, if the only thing they talk about it is the history of Bionicles, or what their favorite My Little Pony character is, at least you can walk away from that conversation knowing you practiced your listening skills. So that when you do meet that someone that gives you that one tiny bit of information that changes your whole life for the better, you'll know exactly how to listen to them. 


Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 7, 2020 at 9:53 AM

    I absolutely loved this post! Your take on Headlee's talk was refreshing and just like the actual TedTalk itself, gave me a lot to reflect on when it comes to listening to my peers. Just like you described I tend to be trying to multitask while having a face to face conversation because I'm just not used to it and it frightens me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arguing: For Dummies

  Arguing: For Dummies  Arguing, America’s newest favorite past time. One of the most efficient ways to get what you want. As well as one of the most efficient ways to get rid of those pesky friends and family members of yours. But in all seriousness, knowing how to argue is essential to living in today's world. Being able to argue responsibility gives you the ability to properly fight for yourself, fight for your family, and fight for those in your community. You want to have your voice heard, you want to be listened to and respected. As the late Ruth Baders Ginsburg once said, “Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one's ability to persuade.” If you want your city to fill in a pothole on your street, or you disagree with an HOA policy, or you’re simply having a conversation with your neighbor about the current political standings; Arguing can help you in all of these instances. As stated in “Arguing in communities” written by Gary Layne Hatch, by effectively unde...
3 comments
Read more

Understanding Beyond Literacy

As children growing up in an age of online social media, we’ve simply grown up with every form of multimodal production that there is. We have witnessed first hand the amount of different productions we can take in at once. Instagram for example, is a media platform where you can share images and photos, one photo, depending on what it is, can tell you a lot about where a person is, what they’re doing and how they feel about what they're doing. You can also tell a lot by their caption, the text and even subtext of what they’ve written. You can also get a glimpse of their personality as well.   Although we have never looked at these as more than just a fun and enjoyable pass time, we have developed an understanding and skill that most people of our older generation had to be taught. We may not have known how to read the subtext or analyze our media, but in a world where our communication is heavily dependent on quick response texting, we’ve learned how to read emotions through ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Complementary in contraction

The New Yorker , a renowned magazine publisher that is known for making interesting and compelling commentary, criticism and other interesting literary pieces about the current social, political and economical topics in America. For the last century, the magazine has been most famous for their detailed, abstract and overall powerful cover arts on their magazines about America's top stories. One cover in particular was one that I chose out of called “Taking the L Train” By Tomer Hakuna, this particular cover depicts two men standing in a subway cart, facing away from each other. We see the side profile of each man as they face different directions. The seats behind them are empty but both men choose to stand. With the background of the subway a dull beige color, your eyes lead you to the middle of the piece. Two men of presumably different backgrounds, back to back, utterly unaware of the man standing behind him; and the similarities they may share between one another. (Illustrato...
Post a Comment
Read more